Chapter 3

Forever Fragile

Grissom ran through the hallway, unable to catch the man in black. He tried as hard as he could to stop him, but he knew it was too late. Slowly, he made his way back into his home not wanting to see the aftermath.

His heart couldn't stop pounding and the tears wouldn't seize.

As he started to make his way back to the house, a baby's cries alarmed Grissom immediately. He turned his body around to the sound of the young child's voice and started to run. The cries grew louder and louder, yet he couldn't find their source.

As he continued to run, the street ended suddenly and all that was in sight was darkness and fog.

He dropped to his knees, and he couldn't take it any longer. It was his fault! He had no reason to live, his entire life was lost in an instant and he wasn't there to prevent it.

As he pulled out his gun and forced it against his temple a figure came from the distance…

"Don't do it!" The voice yelled as the gun went off and Grissom dropped to the ground.

"Grissom?" Sara gently woke Grissom from his nightmare. The light circular rubs on his back tried to tell him that everything was going to be alright.

Usually when Grissom woke up from a nightmare Sara could cure his fright with a simple smile. Tonight nothing would cure him from his pain. He opened his eyes and tried to avoid her stare as much as possible. He didn't want her to see how much the dream bothered him.

"I'm fine." Grissom blandly stated, as he rose up from the bed and headed towards his kitchen.

He knew sleep was not an option, and since they were only four hours away from their next shift, coffee would keep him sane for the eighteen hours or so. As he poured the water and mechanically measured the coffee into the machine, Sara stood in the doorway confused and still demanding an explanation.

"It seems you've been giving me the 'I'm fine' treatment for the past two days now. To be honest I'm kinda tired of it." She coolly quipped, waiting for a comeback. All she got was a shrug in response. His back was still turned towards her, avoiding any attempt to make eye contact.

Sara walked slowly over to Grissom, her bathrobe swaying with every step. The coolness of the tiles below her feet couldn't dissipate the fire of anger stirring in her gut. Their relationship wouldn't work if this was the amount of communication they were going to reciprocate.

"So you really want this to fail, huh?" Sara made Grissom finally turn around. He slightly jumped back when he realized how close she was invading his personal space.

"What do I want to fail?" Grissom genuinely asked, seeming confused yet still distant.

"Us." Sara sighed, with her arms crossed over her chest.

Grissom felt his heart pound a little further, as he realized that his distance tactic may not work. On to Plan B.

"I just need sometime to think. This case has really gotten to me and I haven't felt this way in a long time. Please just be patient with me." Grissom forced a weak smile, and Sara barely seemed to buy it.

"So there's nothing you want to tell me?" Sara placed a gentle hand on one of his shoulder's trying to ease the strain that appeared to be forcing them down.

"Right now- no." Grissom handed Sara a cup of coffee and walked casually to their bedroom, not hearing the exasperated sigh that Sara deflated from her lungs.

Sara's pager went off and woke her up from her brief, yet relaxing nap in the break room. She knew more than anyone that sleeping on the job helped no one, including their cases. However, the strain of dealing with Grissom's distance was starting to increase her tossing and turning during the night. She should be concentrating on this case. She was late for a briefing with Doc Robbins; Grissom had asked Sara to be in his place. Clearly he needed to re-find his footing, and this evening would be the team's first debriefing from their processed evidence. So far the evidence in this case appeared to be minimal from Sara's prospective, however, she has not seen the entire piece of the puzzle. Her mind has sadly been on other things besides the evidence; which was not acceptable within a case as huge as this.

One dead child and a caregiver...At least Sara assumed he was the child's caregiver.

Sara entered the cold, dimly lit morgue and tried to hold back a shiver as she almost felt the feeling of death seep into her lungs, with every breath. Perhaps it was the nature of the case that made her rethink the boundaries of life. A child, barely a year old had lost its life. This case deserved Sara's full attention, and she was determined to drain every ounce of energy she had until she solved it.

Robbins barely gave Sara a nod of recognition as she approached the table. Apparently the doctor was feeling the emotional strain from this case as well. Only two things could affect Robbins in his daily routine of death: Battered women and children. This child didn't stand a chance.

Sara immediately noted the angelic, innocence that seemed to surround the child even in death. If it wasn't for the pale complexion painted on the baby's cheeks, she would have thought she was alive. She knew better than to wish away death, all she could do was speak for the victims. However, Sara did wish that the physical evidence would speak volumes.

"I'd say I'm happy to see you Sara, but under these circumstances joy isn't in the itinerary." Robbins sighed, and then dove straight into his findings. Without even looking into his notes he continued. "Baby Annabeth Higgins died of suffocation due to occlusion of the mouth and inhalation of ammonia fumes. I found several white cotton fibers in the child's airway, I sent them to trace. The strong scent of ammonia led me to run a tox screen. There was an elevated level of ammonia in baby Higgins's blood, it shows that her death took sometime." Robbins handed the report to Sara, who arched a typical Grissom eyebrow in response.

"I'm guessing our male victim, Richard Chance isn't a relative." Sara asked Robbins.

"I wouldn't know, but I did send a vial of blood to Catherine to get a DNA profile on both victims. She should have it ready for the briefing. The family of Annabeth is still missing. Brass is still trying to track them down. If Chance was the child's sitter, he didn't have much of a chance of protecting her. " Robbins stated. "I must add that who ever killed baby Annabeth was in a hurry, the ammonia only knocked her unconscious. Someone had to cut off her airway to do the rest of the job."

"Manual strangulation." Sara soberly noted, as she followed Robbins to the next table.

"Exhibit B, Richard Chance. His death was a little more direct. He was graced with four bullet wounds, three to the chest and one to the head. The final blow was to his heart, the shot to the head occurred post-mortem. I won't be able to tell you anymore until the rest of the lab results come back. I did find this in his hair..." Robbins picked a small cross off of the table and showed it to Sara.

"Looks like the cross was on a necklace, most likely a gold chain. Broken in a struggle perhaps..." Sara took the gold cross which was already sealed in an evidence bag and thanked Robbins for his quick results. She hoped the evidence could prove to be even more useful in the debriefing tonight.

Maybe with fresh evidence Grissom would snap out of whatever trance he was in and start opening up to her.

Things could only get better...She hoped.